Comic Commentary Week: 5

click to see all of it*

Boy can I relate.  Parenting was easy when they were three and a half and one.  It's really hard now.  I forget to check Rachel's math homework and she misses some problems and it affects her grade (when did homework go from being practice to graded work?) and Elie's hurts aren't just falling and skinning her knees anymore (though she still does that enough) - well, neither of their hurts are that simple anymore...

And, well, just the other day - when one girl was angry and sarcastic toward the other...well, it was like holding a mirror up.  There's me.  There's what she's learning.  Oh, I know she's learning some good stuff too, and I see that too...  But the parenting failures... yeah, I see 'em.

And where I'm weak.  My kids will never be soccer stars.  They can't shoot hoops.  They really probably won't be very athletic... 'Cause I'm inside when I'm around.  They'll be good with words.  Maybe a little too good for their own, well, good.  And they'll be musical.  And creative.  And maybe a little lonely sometimes...

Science projects?  Yeah, that's what Darryl's working on, I think.  We did the volcano.  It was awesome.  Not so much as a science project, though.  I mean, I'd give the final project a B, maybe.  And the other project was measuring the different amounts of different brands and types of soda that spew out if you shake each two-liter bottle 14 times and have an 11-year-old open it in your driveway.  Again, pretty awesome.  Again, maybe a B... But we had fun at least...  Then we saw the other projects that some of the other kids did... Wow...  Parenting failure...  I give my "helping with science projects" a parenting C-...  Though my "letting them do awesome projects that create awesome messes that we can talk about for a long time" B+ ... So maybe that's a wash...

And it seems like the kids are always on to the next thing I'm not quite ready to handle... whatever that might be... I suppose my parents were probably in the same boat.  Maybe every generation?  I don't know...

And still kids grow up - and survive.  And get through science projects and soccer practices and hurts and math tests and can still hug mom and dad at night and say, "I love you."

So...maybe failure is too strong a word after all...













*I didn't save the date - copyright Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott - no infringement intended



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

B C Comic

Image
So ten years ago Johnny Hart (who died like 4 years ago) ran this strip (click to enlarge): And there's been controversy since.  Okay, I get it.  Hart was a Christian and he expressed his faith in his comic strip - lots of people calling him a fundamentalist...dunno what his particular Christian religious persuasion was - except that his funeral was in a Presbyterian church. So, anyway, it's just clear that lots of people missed the point****.  In fact, Hart himself claimed to be shocked that people thought he was an advocate for  replacement theology  based on the strip...  He could be clever - a 2006 strip that I think has a well played double entendre: (And, for the record, I'm no more or less offended by that than I am by people who use  Fred Phelps  as the posterboy for Christianity - every religion has it's crazy fundamentalists...well, the big ones I know about, anyway...)  Nice double joke on "moon shaped" and bug - Luna-Tic...
Read more

Buzzword Bingo

Image
Everybody has buzzwords - business has theirs, the entertainment industry has a lingo, in sports, and in church work we have ours, too. Dilbert the other day had the pointy haired boss try to lead via catchprhases: copyright Scott Adams I have threatened to make up "Buzzword Bingo" cards for Annual Conference. You know, put words like "Holy Conferencing" and "Inclusiveness" and "Core Value" and, oh yeah, "Jesus" on the card and when you get five in a row you can jump up and yell "BINGO", or maybe "Holy Spirit" I don't know... We're not allowed to play bingo, so we definitely shouldn't yell out that word. Maybe if I had people yell out "Hallelujah!" when they got 5 in a row, the powers that be at conference would just assume that the person was powerfully moved by the point being made.* But we would know - and would secretly give them a prize.** The point being that we like to use the t...
Read more

It's Official

I know that when spring comes our minds all turn to the things that are going on around us - robins singing, flowers blooming - if you're a United Methodist, then you start thinking about pastors moving. So...I can officially announce (well, I HAVE officially announced - but this is for all of you far away) On July 1, 2008 I will be one of the Associate Pastors at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park, PA. www.christumc.net I will be leading the 11:01 and the 6:00 contemporary/modern/non-traditional/emergent... well, whatever adjective we use... worship services. It is difficult to leave Warren. This has been home for 6 years. Elie was born here. Rachel went to kindergarten and first grade here. This church has been an amazing blessing to us and we are so loved. We are stepping into...well, we don't know what. So stay tuned. I know one thing for certain: God is leading us to Bethel Park so I know that God has amazing things in store for us, for Christ UMC and fo...
Read more